Electronic calendars have become a common tool used by individuals to track meetings, appointments, and other scheduled events. When scheduling an event that is to include multiple individuals, the person scheduling the event may or may not have access to view calendars or schedules associated with the other individuals to be invited to the event. When a user schedules an event, indicating one or more other individuals to be in attendance, an email message is typically sent to the other users, and the other users can each either accept or decline the meeting request. Because of the delay that may occur between the time that one user schedules an event and the time at which the other attendees have checked their email and responded to the meeting request, it is possible that either the scheduled meeting time will have passed or that one or more of the attendees may have scheduled or been invited to attend a conflicting event. If this happens, the meeting may then need to be re-scheduled, and the scheduling process must be started again. In addition, because the initiating user may not get an answer right away, he typically needs to also schedule personal time to check for email responses to determine whether the meeting has been accepted or if it needs to be rescheduled.
Instant messaging is an increasingly popular communication tool that enables two or more users to exchange real-time text messages via a network or peer-to-peer connection. Instant messaging differs from email in that instant messages are exchanged in real-time between two users who are online at the same time. On the other hand, email messages may be exchanged between one user who is online at the time the message is created and another user who may not be online to check email until much later.
While instant messaging is an effective tool for communication, it does not support some of the other tasks that may naturally flow from a real-time communication. For example, if two users are engaged in an instant messaging conversation, and decide to schedule a time to meet in person, each user may need to consult a personal calendar, and a significant amount of time may be spent exchanging scheduling information before being able to identify a time that both users are available to meet. This scenario becomes even more difficult if more than two individuals are participating in an instant messaging conversation and want to schedule a time to get together in person.
Accordingly, a need exists for an instant messaging session tool that enables users to easily share information, such as calendar data, in real-time.